£4·25 188 Jan/Feb 2021 www.ethicalconsumer.org Still trapped in poverty How to give chocolate workers a fair share SHOPPING GUIDES TO Chocolate Fruit Juice Soft Drinks Perfume & Aftershave Organic Fair Trade Vegan Palm oil free Soy free Gluten free Ethically, Socially & Environmentally responsible 100% made in Ecuador (in origin) m nsu er o .o c r l g a c i h t e Y BES T BU pacarichocolates.uk CAPITAL AT RISK. INVESTMENTS ARE LONG TERM AND MAY NOT BE READILY REALISABLE. ABUNDANCE IS AUTHORISED AND REGULATED BY THE FINANCIAL CONDUCT AUTHORITY (525432). Making money is great. But so is having a planet for your kids to live on. abundanceinvestment.com Mobilise your money for good 2 Ethical Consumer January/February 2021 ETHICAL CONSUMER Editorial WHO’S WHO n this issue, we bring you some new part-time member of staff to help THIS ISSUE’S EDITORS Josie Wexler, Ruth Strange, Tim Hunt, Rob Harrison guides you might want for the us – Nabila Ahmed, and plan to make PROOFING Ciara Maginness (Little Blue Pencil) Christmas season – chocolate, a submission to the Treasury Select WRITERS/RESEARCHERS Jane Turner, Tim Hunt, perfume, fruit juice and soft drinks. Committee on tax. Rob Harrison, Anna Clayton, Josie Wexler, IDisgracefully, poverty and Ethical Consumer has also joined Ruth Strange, Mackenzie Denyer, Clare Carlile, exploitation are a theme, which makes it #MakeAmazonPay – a new coalition Francesca de la Torre, Alex Crumbie, Tom Bryson, Billy Saundry, Jasmine Owens all a bit reminiscent of Charles Dickens’s demanding change from the online REGULAR CONTRIBUTORS Simon Birch, Colin Birch Christmas full of ghosts. But there is giant. Other members include War on DESIGN Tom Lynton some positive change happening – in Want, the Tax Justice Network, and LAYOUT Adele Armistead (Moonloft), Jane Turner the cocoa industry, governments are Greenpeace. The coalition has published COVER Tom Lynton starting to step up to tackle the low a list of common demands, from CARTOONS Marc Roberts, Mike Bryson, Richard Liptrot, Andy Vine prices which underlie the poverty, “raising workers’ pay in all Amazon AD SALES Simon Birch and companies such as Fairafric are warehouses in line with the increasing SUBSCRIPTIONS Elizabeth Chater, developing more innovative ways of wealth of the corporation” and “ending Francesca Thomas, Nadine Oliver addressing it. union busting”; to “stopping all PRESS ENQUIRIES Simon Birch, Tim Hunt A couple of guides also address issues sponsoring of climate change denial” ENQUIRIES Francesca Thomas around stereotypes and body image. The and “paying taxes in full”. WEB EDITOR Sophie Billington THANKS ALSO TO Marlous Veldt, Merle Büter, Emma perfume industry’s TV advert budget is Kerrison, Katy Davies, Catherine Harbour, Jane astronomical, and as you can’t convey Finally Darling a smell through a TV screen, they You may notice that we are getting less All material correct one month before cover date basically sell nothing but pure fantasy prosaic and have a new poetry corner: and © Ethical Consumer Research Association and dreams. Luckily, there are brands Poetic Justice. That’s now going to be Ltd. ISSN 0955 8608 that are less over the top. a regular feature, so we hope you’re Printed with vegetable ink by RAP Spiderweb Ltd, Alternatively, if buying a selection something of a rhyming creature! c/o the Commercial Centre, Clowes Centre, box or bottle of eau de toilette seems Our next magazine is going to be Hollinwood, Oldham OL9 7LY. 0161 947 3700 a little passé in these times of crisis, devoted to green technologies, including PAPER 100% post-consumer waste, chlorine-free and sourced from the only UK paper merchant why not inspire your friends and loved heat pumps, solar panels and solar supplying only recycled papers – Paperback ones with a gift subscription to Ethical thermal. Which is timely, given that the (www.paperbackpaper.co.uk) Consumer magazine? It’s a gift that government has announced as part of RETAIL DISTRIBUTION is handled by Central Books lasts a whole year, you’ll be helping to its recently released 10-point climate on 0845 458 9911. support our work and we’ll plant an plan that it intends 600,000 heat pumps Ethical Consumer is a member of INK (independent news collective), an association of olive sapling in Palestine for every new to be installed every year by 2028. As radical and alternative publishers. subscriber. only 30,000 were fitted last year, www.ink.uk.com that is quite the increase – 20- We are a Living Wage employer, a multi-stakeholder Tax and the digital fold, in eight years. co-op, and Fair Tax Mark accredited. giants But for that you will have We also update on our ongoing to wait until 2021. In the campaign to make digital giants meantime, Merry Christmas such as Google, Facebook and and Happy New Year from Amazon pay their way. all at Ethical Consumer. While these companies ABOUT THE ADVERTISERS were already failing to pay ECRA checks out advertisers before accepting their their share even before ads and reserves the right to refuse any advert. the pandemic, COVID COVERED IN PREVIOUS PRODUCT GUIDES Abundance has pushed things into (177), Co-operative Bank (186), Flaya (188), Green Stationery (185), Infinity Wholefoods a ‘taking the absolute (178), Kingfisher Toothpaste (184), Pacari mick’ situation – society Chocolates (188), Plamil (188), Vegetarian Shoes faces a financial crisis, (185). while they are doing Other advertisers Green Building Store, Investing JOSIE WEXLER Ethically, Medical Aid for Palestine), Practical simply marvellously out EDITOR Action, The Path. of it all. We have recruited a WHAT IS ETHICAL CONSUMER? Democratise the market by enabling Push for wider political action and 2consumers to assert their own ethical 5legislative change. Ethical consumerism is We are an independent, not-for-profit, multi- values by using our shopping guides. not a replacement for other forms of political stakeholder co-operative founded in 1989 action. But it is an important additional way and based in Manchester. Our primary goal is Have a fully transparent ranking system. All for people to exert their influence. making global businesses more sustainable 3our data is available to subscribers. through consumer pressure. Our mission is to: HOW TO CONTACT US Engage with companies by telling them why Unit 21, 41 Old Birley Street, Manchester, M15 5RF Help consumers to challenge corporate we are buying or not buying their products. 4 0161 226 2929 — 10-5pm 1 power by using their economic vote every We also send them detailed questions about [email protected] — general time they go shopping. their policy and practice on ethical issues. [email protected] — subscriptions ethicalconsumer.org 3 feelgood windows Enjoy the comfort and energy efficiency of triple glazed timber windows and doors ® Options to suit all budgets Friendly personal service and technical support from the low energy and Passivhaus experts www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk t: 01484 461705 g b s windows ad 91x137mm Ethical C dec 2018 FINAL.indd 1 14/12/2018 10:42 4 Ethical Consumer January/February 2021 ETHICAL CONSUMER Contents NEWS FEATURES SHOPPING GUIDES 06 Food & Home 44 Taxing Big Tech Chocolate Dirty dozen pesticides, Beer & biscuit How to wrestle tax from Big Tech 10 Introduction brand sales, Plastic-free periods campaign, Boulder art to stop bottom 44 12 Score Table & Best Buys trawling in North Sea 14 Going beyond certification 08 Climate 17 Nestlé profile Ogoni 9 anniversary, Smart tariffs, Ground Up event, 10 point green plan 10 08 40 Ethical Consumer Week Reflections on our online event 40 Fruit Juices 18 Introduction 20 Score Table & Best Buys 38 Ethical Novice Chocolate Soft Drinks 26 Introduction 38 Poetic Justice 28 Score Table & Best Buys Christmas Vexation 39 Clothes Garment workers’ crisis, Made in REGULARS 26 Britain, Clothes factories’ safety 46 Christmas gift 42 Boycotts subscriptions Facebook hate speech, Amazon Give a gift subscription to Ethical greenwash, AXA financing Israeli Consumer settlements 48 Letters 43 Lush Prize 2020 A regular forum for readers’ views Can big data replace animal testing? Report on this year’s virtual conference and awards. 50 47 Money Community Shares thrive 43 23 Juice & Soft Drinks packaging 24 Juice & Soft Drinks company profiles 25 Spotlight on Coca-Cola Perfumes and aftershaves 50 Inside view 32 Introduction French food revolution 34 Score Table & Best Buys ethicalconsumer.org 5 NEWS Food & Home Beer and biscuit news THE DIRTY DOZEN Fox’s biscuits has just been bought by chocolate Pesticides used in company Ferrero. It used to score 8.5 but that now agriculture can often drops to 5. See the chocolate guide on page 10. leave detectable traces Beer company Greene King is now owned by Hong of chemicals in, or on, Kong’s richest family, CKA Group, which already our food known as owns Superdrug and mobile operator Three. It ‘residues’. Crops are not also owns 20% of rolling stock firm UK Rail, 16% of sprayed just once during a Northumbrian Water and 12% of Wales and West Gas growing season; multiple Networks. Greene King’s score drops from 5.5 to 1. applications of different Greene King is one of the companies that pesticides can be applied pledged to make slave trade reparations in June to – as many as 20 different address their founders’ roles in the trans-Atlantic chemicals can be applied slave trade. Records archived by researchers at to winter wheat for University College London (UCL) show that one of example. Greene King’s founders, Benjamin Greene, held at Pesticides Action least 231 human beings in slavery and became an Network has analysed enthusiastic supporter of the practice. Greene was government data on given the equivalent of about £500,000 at today’s residues on fruit and veg rate in compensation when he surrendered rights and has come up with a to plantations in Montserrat and Saint Kitts when dirty dozen list – 12 fruits slavery was abolished in the British empire in 1833.